Alexander Rud Mills - Influence On Germanic Neopaganism

Influence On Germanic Neopaganism

Mills was the focal point for English-speaking Odinists from the 1920s until his death. In his native Australia one of his most prominent supporters was Annie Lennon, who on at least one occasion had to book out the Brisbane Football Ground to accommodate those who wished to hear her message. Since the ground was not big enough for those wished to be admitted, she had to hire a public address system to relay her message to those outside who could not be accommodated.

After Mills was released from internment in late 1942 he continued to promote his vision of Odinism. He remained an active writer, publishing eight books and numerous articles and pamphlets between 1933 and 1957 on Odinist themes.

In the early 1960s two former Danish resistance fighters against the Nazi occupation of Denmark, both left-wing activists then living in Canada, Else and Alec Christensen, made contact with Rud Mills' Odinist wife. According to Else, Alec had spent "about half a year" in a German concentration camp on Danish soil during WW2. The Christensens took a cue from the Anglecyn Church of Odin and formed the 'Odinist Fellowship' in 1969.

In the late 1960s, an Odinist activist in London, Stubba, formed the Committee for the Restoration of the Odinic Rite. This received government recognition in the early 1970s, and still continues as the Odinic Rite.

In the early 1970s, a group of Australian Odinists who were students at the University of Melbourne sought a guarantee from the Australian Attorney-General that if Odinism were formally revived it would not be persecuted (as Mills' church had been). The Attorney-General gave that guarantee, and by the early 1990s the Odinic Rite of Australia had been granted legal status by the Australian government. Today, members of the ORA attend annual pilgrimages to the graves of Rud and Evelyn Mills.

In 1980 Kerry Raymond Bolton from Christchurch, New Zealand, along with David Crawford, co-founded a New Zealand outfit called the Church of Odin. They both had a background in far-right political activities. Paul Spoonley quotes Crawford as saying that the Church of Odin was exclusively for whites, and specifically whites "of non-Jewish descent" and that "the main Odinic law requires loyalty to race". By 1983 Bolton had left the Church.

Today, the main Odinist religious bodies that honour Rud and Evelyn Mills are the northern hemisphere's Odinic Rite, and the Odinic Rite of Australia.